In a historic event, Sarah Mullally was enthroned as the first female spiritual leader of the Anglican Church, during a ceremony at Canterbury Cathedral, in the southeast of England.
The new archbishop, 63 years old, a former nurse, married and mother of two children, took the oath before about two thousand people, including the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, Crown Prince William and his wife Catherine.
The new Anglican leader succeeds Justin Welby, who resigned in November 2024 after being implicated in the management of a physical and sexual assault scandal.
Sarah Mullally is the first woman to hold the position of spiritual leader of the Anglican Church, present in 165 countries, after her 105 male predecessors.
“I solemnly pledge myself before you to the service of the Church of England, the Anglican communion and the entire Church of Christ throughout the world, so that together we may proclaim the Gospel of Christ that reconciles us to God and breaks down the walls that divide us,” he declared when taking the oath.
Sarah Mullally had previously arrived in Canterbury on a multi-day walking pilgrimage from St Paul’s Cathedral in London.
Who is Sarah Mullally?
Ordained a priestess in 2002, Mullally became the first female bishop of London in 2018, four years after women were authorized to access the episcopacy, after intense internal debates in the Church of England.
His appointment was strongly criticized by several archbishops in Africa.
Sarah Mullally will also have to face deep divisions within the global Anglican communion.
According to estimates from Christian databases, such as the World Christian Database, there are around 958 thousand Anglicans throughout Latin America, with Brazil, with 103 thousand, being the country with the largest community.
Sources from the Anglican Church in Spain quantify its followers in that country at around 20,000.
The Church of England became the religious body of the United Kingdom after King Henry VIII’s break with Catholicism in the 16th century.
Leave a Reply